Ok, Ok, I'll buy it....but surely the photo of Jeff holding the book, with his head cut off in the photo, is making a bit of a joke.... [a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156672\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'm trying to understand if this book is for me. I primarily use Lightroom to convert my raw images. I tend to follow the top to bottom approach using the controls on the right side of the screen. I use my eyeballs to judge the changes in the image - once it looks good, I stop.

When watching the camera to print video at one point Michael pushed the dark slider way to the right. Much further than I've done in the past. I didn't fully understand the reasoning behind this selection but I reasoned that it was really an artistic decision rather than a technical one. I thought the 'auto' tone feature sets to what's technically correct, but not always pleasing.

Will reading this book give me a new perspective on how to adjust the image? For someone who is self taught and does photography as a hobby can this have a positive impact on the quality of my images?

Changing the subject for just a second (it's been a while since I've posted), I asked my wife to watch the C2P segment on framing and matting. I was hopeful that she would show an interest and perhaps take on this aspect for me. Ten minutes into the segment, her first comment 'wow, look at that guy's (Michael) watch, it's amazing.' I got a good chuckle when hearing that. She also commented on Jeff's shirt but I won't go there.

Most of us won't get through the book in 4 hours as Michael did, but for those who persist, the payoff is there. As Michael says, "It not only tells you how but why...If I can learn why something is done the way it is...then how to accomplish it is trivial."

Well I was wondering when this book would hit the shelves! Had the one for CS2 and have been looking forward to this edition. Look forward to reading your work Jeff. Thank Michael for the heads up and review.

Looking forward to it. I use ACR and lightroom pretty much similar to the poster above (run down the controls till things look ok) and I am positive I am leaving a lot behind on the table with regards developing my photo's.

Regards

Mark.

PS: I enjoyed C2P, the Lightroom tutorial and have devoured every LLVJ. Look forward to more and keep up the good work folks.

Considering the processing pipeline in CR and LR are the same, I'd say yes, you'll get a lot out of the book since so much good information would then pertain to the develop module.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156796\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

You are so right about the information on the develop module. I can tell you from experience that this book has really helped with the Lightroom learning curve.

Will reading this book give me a new perspective on how to adjust the image? For someone who is self taught and does photography as a hobby can this have a positive impact on the quality of my images?

[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156719\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The short answer is yes. I have also skimmed the book, now I'm into detailed reading. It is an excellent book - no question about it. It explains everything, and therefore everything you need to know, which for most of us will be important subsets of the total.

What's important is not only how to adjust images, but also the workflow - how to make the program improve image processing efficiency. There are many nooks and crannies to this and the book explains them.

But if adjusting images is your main focus, chapters 4 and 5 provide a real solid hands-on foundation in how to use this program to greatest advantage. Their advice is to use Camera Raw to the fullest before rendering to Photoshop, and they show what that means with real-world examples.

The important thing about this version of the program, and therefore one of the important things about the book, is that the functionality of CR4.1 is a major set of steps up from 3.7 - a great many more tools, and therefore an even greater number of permutations and combinations for how they can be combined to solve a wide range of image adjustment issues. The book steers through the logic of the adjustment process, showing how various controls work with eachother and how to use them together in a very practical way.

I'm not selling work, I'm also self-taught, I've adjusted about 1600 images with CR 4.x since it became available and tried all kinds of cool things with it - even written some stuff on this website about them, but I'm still reading this book line by line because I too am discovering things.

This quote from Michael's review is something every teacher should take heed of.

"But if I can learn why something is done the way it is, and what is happening behind the scenes, then how to accomplish it become trivial and often obvious."

I find if you teach principles rather than facts, the students learn more, learn better and learn faster too. I'm looking forward to increasing my understanding of RAW, when I get myself a copy.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156936\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Have to agree here. I found that after I read the first RW Camera Raw book, my understanding the benifits of raw went through the roof. Can't wait to get into this latest version.

I like tight crops...in portraits, it's the eyes & the mouth that tell the story. Who cares about seeing the TOP of somebody's head?

No mystery, I didn't have a hair stylist for the shoot and the top of my head was showing how little hair is left up there. So, I cropped it at my strong forehead![a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156942\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

As someone who also has a "wide part" hair style, I appreciate the crop.

I do like the portrait, too, but I felt the OP's comment required a reply.

But, I'll have to say: If I had to choose between the portrait and the book, I'd choose the book, which is likely to do more to improve my own RAW processing.

I like tight crops...in portraits, it's the eyes & the mouth that tell the story. Who cares about seeing the TOP of somebody's head?

No mystery, I didn't have a hair stylist for the shoot and the top of my head was showing how little hair is left up there. So, I cropped it at my strong forehead![a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156942\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Buy it from Amazon UK it's only $59.4227 + postage.Seriously this rip off of the British (Germans/Australians etc) has got to stop.I bought the first book but I won't buy this version no matter how good it is until Amazon's import partners get to work and bring the price down to somewhere near parity with the US. I have no doubt the content is worth much more than this and I may be p***ing in the wind but the difference is too much to live with.And Amazon say I'm saving £3.20 - speechlessFrank

Buy it from Amazon UK it's only $59.4227 + postage.Seriously this rip off of the British (Germans/Australians etc) has got to stop.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=156992\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I wouldn't swear to this, but I'm pretty sure that the Brits and perhaps some of the Europeans have laws that attempt to protect small bookstores from predatory pricing by the chains. Independent bookstores have essentially been wiped out in the US since about 1990, leaving chains, both large and small, but chains nevertheless. I owned part of a small bookstore that went under in the mid-90s in the US. We were small enough that we couldn't afford to buy from individual publishers (who had minimum orders) and so had to buy from middle-men distributors who'd sell us a package of books from all the publishers. The problem was, the distributor's price was more than the retail price of a book when bought from places like WalMart, and not much lower than prices at places like Borders or Barnes & Noble or Amazon. In fact, there were times when we had demand for a best-seller, we'd go over to Costco and buy a bunch of books and resell them in our store, because the Costco price was lower than the price we could get from our distributor.

So, as I understand it, the price you pay for a book in Britain or in Europe is, in some part, a subsidy to keep the small stores from going under. There are both problems and benefits with this...but that's what you're paying for.